infrastructure

President Trump unveiled his plan to overhaul the U.S.’s infrastructure this week, and the initiative is raising some big questions on the High Plains.

The plan essentially calls for local municipalities to pay for their own upgrades. And this in turn would mean that cities and counties would be forced to turn to borrowing, taxing, tolling or cutting budgets at the local level. For states like Oklahoma, which has been struggling beneath the weight of a massive budget crisis for years, finding room in the budget for a huge infrastructure overhaul simply isn’t feasible.

If the highways in your state are crumbling, you may soon be getting some help. Hillary Clinton is preparing a highway plan in the event that she is elected president.

As Bloomberg reports, the Democratic frontrunner has unveiled a $275 billion infrastructure plan that would aim to shore up the nation’s thoroughfares. The initiative would be paid for by corporate tax-law changes.

In a new seven-part series on “Keeping Rural America Competitive,” Agri-Pulse set out to answer that question.

The question is more pressing than ever. The world’s population is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050. That means food production in the U.S. will need to increase dramatically. That means a strong infrastructure will be necessary to deliver crops, livestock, dairy and poultry products to markets.

Next week 80 miles of Texas roads will begin the conversion from paved to gravel according to the Texas Tribune. The oil boom has significantly increased traffic on many farm roads in South and East Texas. The damage is extensive. Dave Glessner, spokesman for the TxDOT says, “Since paving roads is too expensive and there is not enough funding to repave them all, our only other option to make them safer is to turn them into gravel roads."